Happy Five Year Surgiversary to Me!

 I just returned, at 3:30 this morning, from a trip to Montana, for my son's wedding.    I can see why Elizabeth wants us all to visit her when she's there.   It's gorgeous!    I cried when I left the Rockies.  

I spent my five-year surgiversary traveling across the country by train, and it allowed me some time to contemplate this great gift of the DS I've received.     While there, I hiked the Rockies, ran around helping with the wedding, walked up and down more hills than I ever imagined, and wore an itty bitty purple dress that I picked up from TJ Maxx for $20.     I would have NEVER been able to do all of that at 282 lbs.    The last time I went out west, that's about what I weighed, and I sadly sat in the car or at the bottom of a trail head, too heavy to keep up with my family.   This time, they had to keep up with me.    At my son's wedding, a member of the bride's family, whom I'd never met before, did not believe I was my son's mom, and said I looked like a "diva."  I wanted to get down on my knees and kiss her feet with gratitude.    

After eating my way across the country (I was really careful with wheat and sugar because farting and rail travel do not mix) but still indulged in many yummy treats, including pheasant sausage, elk, buffalo and good ol' Montana beef, and vast amounts of wonderful local potato chips, and hopped on the scale this morning.   123.2 pounds.   I'll take it.    Five years out, with minimal weight regain.   I keep the gas under control if I stay away from my enemy, wheat.    Sometimes, though, I chose to eat as I please and pay the consequences.   I would love plastics, but they are probably not in my future.     I was rather disappointed with how my arms looked in the wedding pictures, but on the other hand, they are what they are, and I'm not ashamed to admit I've lost weight.

My five-year check-up is not for two more weeks.    I'll report the results of that when the time comes.   Most know that I've struggled with D issues, so I'm curious to see how that's going. Other than that, it's life as usual.    I remain, as in past years, humbly grateful that I can walk through life light and healthy.

For some reason, the copy and paste feature is giving me fits, but here's a pic from my son's wedding this weekend.   There are more on my profile:

Wow Julie you look AWESOME!  I want to be you and be 123 pounds!  Congrats on your surgeriversary!  You have really done amazingly well and you look fabulous. Keep that family of yours on their toes girlfriend!  You deserve it. :)

Maddie

You look absolutly amazing!!!  Oh and Cute dress :)

Julie... you've helped so many and inspired so many, myself included! Thank you and Congrats! You are a beautiful woman inside and out!
XO
Lisa

Happy surgiversary, my friend!  You have, and will continue to be, an inspiration to me.  You look beautiful...I LOVE that dress on you - it was a perfect choice!  :)

 Twenty bucks!!!  TJ MaXX!!    I love being a size that not many people can wear, LOL, cause they always mark the dresses down to nothing.

 Well done Julie!! You look fabulous! The dress is pretty, and you are beautiful. Thank you for being a role model to all of us who are coming behind you. 
Hugs,
CC

You look fabulous! Sounds like a great trip!!!!

Damn woman, no wonder they didn't believe you were the groom's mother.
You are looking HAWT!! So now the next question - did you get hit on by any young men at the wedding???
You have done so well and inspired many of us. Thanks for sticking around and sharing even though you are out there enjoying your post-DS life.

 Hah!   Funny you'd ask that!    My brother, SIL, and I all went out with a huge group of my son's friends after the wedding, to a local bar, because I knew they'd need some designated drivers.     Some of them were flirting outrageously with me.     I was really surprised.